Information display

ABSTRACT

A method displaying information for viewing by a user characterized by the steps of: peripherally displaying primary information ( 5 ) on a first focal plane ( 3 ), and displaying secondary information ( 6 ) on at least a second focal plane ( 2 ) to the primary information ( 5 ), wherein the secondary information ( 6 ) exhibits at least one characteristic capable of augmenting the effect of the primary information ( 5 ) on the viewer.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to an information display andmore specifically to multi focal plane information displays and a methodof enhancing information extraction from same.

BACKGROUND ART

Any potential improvements in the input speed, comprehension and/orretention of information gained via reading would be clearly beneficialto a wide spectrum of users in many diverse applications.

It is believed that use may be made of the readers subconscious toenhance the recognised conscious reading mechanisms typically employedduring the reading of books, computer screens, visual displays and soforth. Current means of increasing the quantity of information availableto the reader have largely involved decreasing the font size to providea greater quantity of text surface area. However, this technique failsto overcome the inherent limitations of the human eye, i.e. reducing thetext font size below a certain level causes a significant reduction inreadability.

Menus, layering, pop-up windows and so forth have been used single focalplane prior art displays as alternative means of enhancing the quantityof information available to the reader without making the display overlycluttered.

Although the use of menus and similar hierarchical display methods doenable the user to access the required information without the need forlarge display surfaces or undue display clutter, they reduce theviewer's situational awareness. Moreover, they require positiveinteraction by the user, which is not always practical or desirable andare unavoidably slower to use than continuously displayed information.

Multi-layer or multi-focal plane displays have been utilised to addressthe above difficulties whereby two or more display screens at leastpartially overlap, displaying information in two or more distinct focalplanes. The viewer may thus focus on the individual screens to view theinformation displayed thereon without accessing a menu or needing tomake significant head/eye movements to scan large display surfaces.

Research such as the Transparent Layered User Interfaces: An Evaluationof a Display Design to Enhance Focused and Divided Attention, Harrisonet al, CHI 95 Conference (1995) examined the link of transparentdisplays on focused and/or divided attention.

Examples of focused attention include a computer software dialog box orwarning message interrupting a user concentrating on a document, or partof a display screen being temporarily obscured by a drop-down menu.

Divided attention examples provided by Harrison et al include using avideo display showing a colleague during collaborational work, were theparticipant's attention is shared between the colleague and the work inprogress, e.g., a drawing or document.

Harrison et al considered cases of individuals needing to time-share twoinformation items or ‘tasks’ (divided attention), and cases wereindividuals selectively attend to one task excluding the other (focusedattention). However, no specific exploration is made of the potentialbenefit of the unfocused information item on an individual focusing onanother information item/task.

Various means of simultaneously displaying and analysing large literarytext is disclosed at the TextArc™ website http://textarc.org (15 Apr.2002). The display techniques employed are highly unusual andinnovative. In one embodiment, the entire text of a novel for example,is arranged in concentric spirals. Each successive line of the novel iswritten in miniature around the outside of the spiral, with frequentlyoccurring words also being displayed in a larger font within the spiralarc. The frequency of occurrence within the document is denoted by theword's intensity or luminance, while its location is determined by themean geometrical position between occurrences about the outer spiral.Additional displays of the text in a conventional form may be overlaidon the spiral arc representation, enhancing the pre-attentivepossibilities for the viewer. As the viewer scrolls through theconventional text, the high frequency words are illuminated within thespiral, together with radial lines extending to each point in the spiralcontaining the word.

A viewer may thus see a measure of a word's significance, itsinterconnection to other words and its effective location within adocument. The viewer is thus presented with exposure to the bottom upstructure of the entire document and to a variety of interrelationshipsbetween the contents.

However, the combined/overlapping display obscures a portion of the textspiral arrangement. Furthermore, the sheer wealth of visual input in onefocal plane may be distracting and hinder preattentive intake by theviewer.

Further prior art work by Ishii H et al, “Iterative Design of SeamlessCollaboration Media”, Communications of the ACM (CACM), ACM, Vol 37, No.8, August 1994, and the work described at the web siteshttp://web.media.mit.edu/˜ishii/TWS.html, andhttp://web.media.mitedu/˜ishii/CB.html by the same authors discussescombination computer display/whiteboard-type transparent displays. Theissue addressed by Ishii et al is creating a usable work spaceenvironment combining the benefits of a computer screen interface, aphysical desktop and a dual sided transparent glass-board. The resultantsystem provides a display surface on which the images of collaborativeworkers appear to face the user whilst any text/drawing written by anyof the collaborators/users automatically appears with the correctorientation on the combined display. This overcomes the problem ofinversion caused by collaborating users writing on opposing sides of acommon transparent panel. The meaning of facial gestures and bodylanguage nuances of the collaborators regarding particular items in theworkspace screen may be easily discerned. However, again the displaysurface is essentially a single focal plane and thus does not take fulladvantage of the preattentive depth-related capabilities of the user, asdescribed below.

The benefits of multi-layered viewing screens, in particular thoseutilising the technology described in the co-pending Patent ApplicationNos. NZ314566, NZ328074, NZ329130, PCT/NZ98/00098 and PCT/NZ99/00021 aregaining increasingly widespread recognition and acceptance due to theirenhanced capabilities compared to conventional single focal planedisplays.

The basic principle of known multi-focal plane displays is that theviewer consciously applies their attention to one of the focal planesindividually or to a composite image found by the combination of imagesdisplayed on at least partially transparent screens.

Therefore, although the viewing experience may be enriched by thepotential sense of depth provided by such composite displays, it has notbeen utilised thus far as a means of enhancing the reading/imageassimilation speed of the viewer, nor of using the information displayedon one focal plane to improve the net effect on a user consciouslyviewing the display on a separate focal plane. Such improved effectscould include improvements in comprehension, perception, retention,recall, interpretation and/or association with related information.

The manner in which human beings process visual information has been thesubject of extensive and prolonged research in an attempt to understandthis complex process. The term preattentive processing has been coinedto denote the act of the subconscious mind in analysing and processingvisual information which has not become the focus of the viewer'sconscious awareness.

When viewing a large number of visual elements, certain variations orproperties in the visual characteristics of elements can lead to rapiddetection by preattentive processing. This is significantly faster thanrequiring a user to individually scan each element, scrutinising for thepresence of the said properties. Exactly what properties lend themselvesto preattentive processing has in itself been the subject of substantialresearch. Colour, shape, three-dimensional visual clues, orientation,movement and depth have all been investigated to discern the germanevisual features that trigger effective preattentive processing.

Researchers such as Triesman [1985] conducted experiments using targetand boundary detection in an attempt to classify preattentive features.Preattentive target detection was tested by determining whether a targetelement was present or absent within a field of background distractorelements. Boundary detection involves attempting to detect the boundaryformed by a group of target elements with a unique visual feature setwithin distractors. It maybe readily visualised for example that a redcircle would be immediately discernible set amongst a number of bluecircles. Equally, a circle would be readily detectable if set amongst anumber of square shaped distractors. In order to test forpreattentiveness, the number of distractors as seen is varied and if thesearch time required to identify the targets remains constant,irrespective of the number of distractors, the search is said to bepreattentive. Similar search time limitations are used to classifyboundary detection searches as preattentive.

A widespread threshold time used to classify preattentiveness is 200-250msec as this only allows the user opportunity for a single ‘look’ at ascene. This timeframe is insufficient for a human to consciously decideto look at a different portion of the scene. Search tasks such as thosestated above maybe accomplished in less than 200 msec, thus suggestingthat the information in the display is being processed in parallelunattendedly or pre-attentively.

However, if the target is composed of a conjunction of unique features,i.e. a conjoin search, then research shows that these may not bedetected preattentively. Using the above examples, if a target iscomprised for example, of a red circle set within distractors includingblue circles and red squares, it is not possible to detect the redcircle preattentively as all the distractors include one of the twounique features of the target.

Whilst the above example is based on a relatively simple visual scene,Enns and Rensink [1990] identified that targets given the appearance ofbeing three-dimensional objects can also be detected preattentively.Thus, for example a target represented by a perspective view of a cubeshaded to indicate illumination from above would be preattentivelydetectable amongst a plurality of distractor cubes shaded to implyillumination from a different direction. This illustrates an importantprinciple in that the relatively complex, high-level concept ofperceived three-dimensionality may be processed preattentively by thesub-conscious mind. In comparison, if the constituent elements of theabove-described cubes are re-orientated to remove the apparent threedimensionality, subjects cannot preattentively detect targets which havebeen inverted for example. Additional experimentation by Brown et al[1992] confirms that it is the three-dimensional orientationcharacteristic that is preattentively detected. Nakaymyama and Silverman[1986] showed that motion and depth were preattentive characteristicsand that furthermore, stereoscopic depth could be used to overcome theeffects of conjoin. This reinforced the work done by Enns Rensink insuggesting that high-level information is conceptually being processedby the low-level visual system of the user. To test the effects ofdepth, subjects were tasked with detecting targets of differentbinocular disparity relative to the distractors. Results showed aconstant response time irrespective of the increase in distractornumbers.

These experiments were followed by conjoin tasks whereby bluedistractors were placed on a front plane whilst red distractors werelocated on a rear plane and the target was either red on the front planeor blue on the rear plane for stereo colour (SC) conjoin tests, whilststereo and motion (SM) trials utilised distractors on the front planemoving up or on the back plane moving down with a target on either thefront plane moving down or on the back plane moving up.

Results showed the response time for SC and SM trials were constant andbelow the 250 msec threshold regardless of the number of distractors.The trials involved conjoin as the target did not possess a featureunique to all the distractors. However, it appeared the observers wereable to search each plane preattentively in turn without interferencefrom distractors in another plane.

This research was further reinforced by Melton and Scharff [1998] in aseries of experiments in which a search task consisting of locating anintermediate-sized target amongst large and small distractors tested theserial nature of the search whereby the target was embedded in the sameplane as the distractors and the preattentive nature of the searchwhereby the target was placed in a separate depth plane to thedistractors.

The relative influence of the total number of distractors present(regardless of their depth) verses the number of distractors presentsolely in the depth plane of the target was also investigated. Theresults showed a number of interesting features including thesignificant modification of the response time resulting from the targetpresence or absence. In the target absence trials, the reaction times ofall the subjects displayed a direct correspondence to the number ofdistractors whilst the target present trials did not display any suchdependency. Furthermore, it was found that the reaction times ininstances where distractors were spread across multiple depths werefaster than for distractors located in a single depth plane.

Consequently, the use of a plurality of depth/focal planes as a means ofdisplaying information can enhance preattentive processing with enhancedreaction/assimilation times.

It is thus believed that a means of overcoming the above describeddrawbacks is available by harnessing the peripheral vision andsubconscious perception of the reader (particularly in conjunction withmulti focal plane displays) to assimilate additional information sourcessimultaneously with the process of conventional reading in order toenhance the speed and effectiveness of the whole reading/viewingprocess.

The benefits of the multi-layered viewing screens, in particular thoseutilising the technology described in the co-pending Patent ApplicationNos. NZ314566, NZ328074, NZ329130, PCT/NZ98/00098 and PCT/NZ99/00021 areespecially germane to displays using liquid crystal displays (LCD).

There are two main types of Liquid Crystal Displays used in computermonitors, passive matrix and active matrix. Passive-matrix LiquidCrystal Displays use a simple grid to supply the charge to a particularpixel on the display. Creating the grid starts with two glass layerscalled substrates. One substrate is given columns and the other is givenrows made from a transparent conductive material. This is usually indiumtin oxide. The rows or columns are connected to integrated circuits thatcontrol when a charge is sent down a particular column or row. Theliquid crystal material is sandwiched between the two glass substrates,and a polarizing film is added to the outer side of each substrate.

A pixel is defined as the smallest resolvable area of an image, eitheron a screen or stored in memory. Each pixel in a monochrome image hasits own brightness, from 0 for black to the maximum value (e.g. 255 foran eight-bit pixel) for white. In a colour image, each pixel has its ownbrightness and colour, usually represented as a triple of red, green andblue intensities. To turn on a pixel, the integrated circuit sends acharge down the correct column of one substrate and a ground activatedon the correct row of the other. The row and column intersect at thedesignated pixel and that delivers the voltage to untwist the liquidcrystals at that pixel.

The passive matrix system has significant drawbacks, notably slowresponse time and imprecise voltage control. Response time refers to theLiquid Crystal Displays ability to refresh the image displayed.Imprecise voltage control hinders the passive matrix's ability toinfluence only one pixel at a time. When voltage is applied to untwistone pixel, the pixels around it also partially untwist, which makesimages appear fuzzy and lacking in contrast.

Active-matrix Liquid Crystal Displays depend on thin film transistors(TFT). Thin film transistors are tiny switching transistors andcapacitors. They are arranged in a matrix on a glass substrate. Toaddress a particular pixel, the proper row is switched on, and then acharge is sent down the correct column. Since all of the other rows thatthe column intersects are turned off, only the capacitor at thedesignated pixel receives a charge. The capacitor is able to hold thecharge until the next refresh cycle. And if the amount of voltagesupplied to the crystal is carefully controlled, it can be made tountwist only enough to allow some light through. By doing this in veryexact, very small increments, Liquid Crystal Displays can create a greyscale. Most displays today offer 256 levels of brightness per pixel.

A Liquid Crystal Display that can show colours must have three subpixelswith red, green and blue colour filters to create each colour pixel.Through the careful control and variation of the voltage applied, theintensity of each subpixel can range over 256 shades. Combining thesubpixel produces a possible palette of 16.8 million colours (256 shadesof red×256 shades of green×256 shades of blue).

Liquid Crystal Displays employ several variations of liquid crystaltechnology, including super twisted nematics, dual scan twistednematics, ferroelectric liquid crystal and surface stabilizedferroelectric liquid crystal. They can be lit using ambient light inwhich case they are termed as reflective, backlit and termedTransmissive, or a combination of backlit and reflective and calledtransflective. There are also emissive technologies such as OrganicLight Emitting Diodes, and technologies which project an image directlyonto the back of the retina which are addressed in the same manner asLiquid Crystal Displays. These devices are described hereafter as LCDpanels

All references, including any patents or patent applications cited inthis specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission ismade that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of thereferences states what their authors assert, and the applicants reservethe right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the citeddocuments. It will be clearly understood that, although a number ofprior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does notconstitute an admission that any of these documents form part of thecommon general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any othercountry.

It is acknowledged that the term ‘comprise’ may, under varyingjurisdictions, be attributed with either an exclusive or an inclusivemeaning. For the purpose of this specification, and unless otherwisenoted, the term ‘comprise’ shall have an inclusive meaning—i.e. that itwill be taken to mean an inclusion of not only the listed components itdirectly references, but also other non-specified components orelements. This rationale will also be used when the term ‘comprised’ or‘comprising’ is used in relation to one or more steps in a method orprocess.

It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoingproblems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of exampleonly.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided amethod displaying information for viewing by a user

characterised by the steps of:

-   -   a) displaying primary information on a first focal plane, and    -   b) displaying secondary information on at least a second focal        plane peripherally to said primary information, wherein said        secondary information exhibits at least one characteristic        capable of augmenting the effect of the primary information on        the user.

As used herein, the primary information and secondary information may becomprised of alpha-numeric characters, symbols, plain text, images,animations, video sequences, a combination of same and any other meansof visually representing information.

The terms primary and secondary information are not defined to infer ornecessarily suggest any hierarchical relationship or degree of relativeimportance between the primary and secondary information. Rather, theterm primary information is simply denotes the information being vieweddirectly by the user and being interpreted by normal conscious thoughtprocesses associated with reading or viewing images.

The said effect of the secondary information on a user viewing theprimary information may include, but is not limited to:

-   -   an improved assimilation of the content or message contained by        the primary information, including reading and/or comprehension        speed;    -   an enhanced ability to perceive embedded, implied or related        facts (directly or indirectly), links, nuances, innuendoes or        associations regarding the primary information;    -   a greater understanding and comprehension of the primary        information;    -   improved retention and latent recall of the primary information;    -   more enjoyment than experienced by viewing the primary        information in isolation.

The said augmenting effect on a user may be achieved by,

-   -   displaying the secondary information on multiple focal planes,        with substantially the same content and format as the primary        information;    -   displaying the secondary information on multiple focal planes,        with substantially the same content in a different format and/or        visual appearance to the primary information;    -   displaying one of either the primary or secondary information on        a rearward display screen before or after displaying the other        of said primary or secondary information on a forward display        screen.    -   the application of variable format to either or both of said        primary or secondary information including, but not limited to        speed, colour, repetition, visual effects, motion, looming,        scrolling, blinking, fading and/or size change.    -   the static use of format including but not limited to speed,        colour, repetition, visual effects, motion, looming, scrolling,        blinking, fading and size change applied to either or both        primary and/or secondary information.    -   displaying graphics/images as at least part of said secondary        information capable of eliciting a priming, pre-fetching,        anticipating, associating or triggering response by a viewer        viewing the primary information.    -   any and all combinations and/or permutations of the above.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a multi-focal plane display including at least two at leastpartially overlapping display surfaces, capable of displayingInformation according to the above-described method.

Thus, while prior research has included three attentional components,i.e., an individual's capacity to divide attention between two items,the ability to focus on any single item with minimal interference fromother items and the recovery time/latency involved in shifting attentionbetween items, these fail to address the potential advantage/benefit ofsubconscious information assimilation during focused or dividedattention activity.

The present invention may also incorporate existing technologicalapplications displaying primary and secondary information, presentlydirected to use in single focal plane displays and/or wherein saidsecondary information lacks at least one characteristic capable ofaugmenting the effect of the primary information on the user.

Thus, according to a further aspect of the present invention, one ofsaid primary or secondary information includes simultaneously displayingall or a substantial portion of a written work on either of said firstand second focal planes.

Preferably, said written work is composed of text arranged in anenclosing geometric pattern, preferably a concentric spiral.

In one embodiment, recurring text items are displayed individually at amean geometrical position between occurrences of the text item about theconcentric spiral.

In a further embodiment, the text item frequency of occurrence documentin the written work is denoted by a corresponding variation in intensityor luminance of the text item

Preferably, the other of said primary or secondary information includesdisplaying a portion of said written work.

As the viewer scrolls through the conventional text, the high frequencywords are illuminated within the spiral, together with radial linesextending to each point in the spiral containing the word.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Further aspects of the present invention will become apparent from thefollowing description which is given by way of example only and withreference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a simplified perspective view of a dual screen displayoperating in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention.

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows a multi focal plane display operating in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the present invention. The display indicated bythe general reference numeral (1) is preliminary comprised of abackground screen (2) orientated parallel with, but spaced apart from aforeground screen (3). In the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 1, bothscreens (2, 3) are transparent liquid crystal displays LCD panels thoughthe invention is not necessarily limited to same. A back-light (4) islocated behind the rearward screen (2) to provide illumination for thewhole display (1).

The display screens (2, 3) are each capable of displaying either primary(5) or secondary (6) information. FIG. 1 shows primary information (5)displayed on the forward screen (3) and secondary information (6)displayed on the rearward screen (2). It will be appreciated that theconverse situation is equally feasible, ie the primary information (5)being displayed on the rearward screen (2) and vice versa. The primaryinformation (5) and secondary information (6) may both be comprised ofany form of text, symbols, alphanumeric characters, animations and soforth. However, the content of the secondary information (6) is suchthat a user viewing the primary information (5) on the forward screen(3) would receive a beneficial affect due to some enhancing oraugmenting quality of the secondary information (6). This enhancingquality may take many forms and these include, but are not limited to anincreased reading and/or comprehension speed of the primary information(5), a greater retention, perception of related information and soforth. As an example, a information passage describing a geographicallocation written in conventional text on the forward screen (3) theprimary information (5) in the form of being read by a user would fallwithin the definition of the primary information (5) in that theinformation would be the focus of the viewers conscious reading actionsand occupying their direct attention. A representation of the content ofthe primary information (5) may be shown concurrently in graphical formon the rearward screen (2) as the secondary information (6). Thisexemplary scenario is illustrated in FIG. 1 whereby the primaryinformation (5) is a text passage describing the sunrise over aparticular mountain feature and the secondary information provides avisual representation of the actual mountain and rising sun. Thelocation of the rearward screen (2) in a second focal plane behind thatof the primary information on the forward screen (3) results in only aperipheral, subconscious awareness of the content of the secondaryinformation to the user viewing the primary information (5).

The user will therefore experience a greater sense of the actualphysical shape and surroundings to the feature described in the textualdescription(s) on the forward screen (3) enhancing their readingexperience.

An alternative technique to enhance the reading speed of a user is todisplay a particular piece of text as the primary information (5) on theforward screen (3) whilst displaying the next section of text to be readon the rearward screen (2) as the secondary information (6). Thesecondary information (6) thus pre-fetches the text about to be read bythe user and thus primes the users subconscious to be more receptive andaware of its content. It is believed that this subconscious imbibing ofthe additional text increases the quantity of information accessible bythe mind and ultimately increases the reading speed and comprehension ofthe whole message.

Instead of displaying the secondary information (6) simultaneously withthe primary information (5), it may alternatively be shown slightlybefore or after displaying the primary information (5) respectivelyproviding a pre-conditioning or re-enforcing effect on the user readingthe primary information (5). It will be apparent to those skilled in theart that many variations and permutations are possible regarding thecontent of the primary and secondary information (5, 6), the focal planelocation/orientation of their respective displays (2,3), and the mannerof displaying the primary and secondary information (5,6) withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of the invention.

It will be equally apparent that the invention need not necessarily becomprised of information shown on exactly two liquid crystal displays,provided that the effect of viewing the primary information (5)(displayed in whatever form) is augmented by the peripheral assimilationof the secondary information (6) being displayed on one or more focalplanes distinct from the primary information (5).

Aspects of the present invention have been described by way of exampleonly and it should be appreciated that modifications and additions maybe made thereto without departing from the scope thereof.

1-230. (canceled)
 231. A method of displaying information on a displaydevice, said method comprising: displaying primary information on afirst focal plane; and displaying secondary information on at least asecond focal plane peripherally to said primary information, whereinsaid secondary information exhibits at least one characteristic, inaddition to a perception of depth, capable of augmenting the effect ofsaid primary information on a user.